


Forged in Fire

by weebutwicked



Category: Fate: The Winx Saga (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Golden Trio FTW, Implied/Referenced Mind Control, Past Relationship(s), Past Violence, Protective Ben Harvey, Protective Farah Dowling, Silva just wants to sleep and his two loud ass friends won't shut up, Survivor Guilt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:14:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28984701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weebutwicked/pseuds/weebutwicked
Summary: Something was coming, it was going to change and them all and as it had sixteen years ago, he saw the world burning behind closed eyes. A great fire had forged them, he just hoped it wouldn't be the thing that broke them too.
Relationships: Farah Dowling & Saul Silva & Ben Harvey, Farah Dowling/Saul Silva
Comments: 34
Kudos: 160





	Forged in Fire

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what this is, I've been at it for three days, but I love these three and their close bond, so give me all the golden trio stories. I debated making it an OT3 story but maybe next time. Still working up to that. Obviously, I own none of these characters and I hope we see more of them in Season Two, cuz yeah Farah's definitely not fucking dead.

What a shitshow of a day. Ben was washing his hands under the moonlight for what seemed like the hundredth time that day, the blood of one of his best friends seemingly staining his skin permanently now. He didn't know what else to do. _They_ didn't know what else to do. Saul would either live or he would die, that was all there was to it and he knew that the minute Saul had been dragged into his office, nearly at death's door already.

There had been so much poison under all that blood, the Burned One's toxic insides burrowing their way inside the specialist at an alarming rate. Without swift action, and soon, he wouldn't last the week. He checked in on his friend every hour, without fail. Even now in the dead of night, with his children safe inside the school, he kept vigil. He'd done so before, they all had, and he'd do so until he no longer was able.

It was part of being a unit, a family. You just did it without even thinking after a while.

The last time any of them had been in this position was sixteen years prior, none of their own had been harmed, but the remaining trio had been burned to the bone inside, sitting up all night and staring holes into each other in silence at what they'd done. Sweeping it under a rug as soon as Rosalind had been locked away. After losing Andreas, none of it had seemed right. 

Sometimes Ben wondered if any of them had ever really recovered from it, or if they were all just so hollow now that the husks left behind operated on their own stubborn refusal to die. They certainly made it look easy, that's for sure. And if Saul died now... then what? Four became three would become two. Two surviving and lost faeries. He at least had his kids, but Farah, if Saul died then another part of Farah would be lost behind a different type of barrier.

He didn't want to think about what that would mean for the woman. She'd been the one to hold them all together after everything that had happened. 

Shaking his hands dry, Ben stepped away from the sink and turned around to find he and Saul weren't alone in the greenhouse. He hadn't heard nor felt anyone coming, his focus on helping Saul covering up the vibrations any footsteps might make but the stillness and ease he felt now meant it could only be one person. If it had been anyone else at this hour he might have been alarmed, but not with her.

He should have known she'd come back to check in on them.

She was seated on the step nearest the cot Saul was being treated on, her back pressed flush against the side rail and head in her hands. Normally, he would never dare to think ill of her appearance but this had been hard on all of them. Saul meant a great deal to them both. All they had was each other and when one wheel was wobbly, they all would tumble.

She looked exhausted, terrified and a little bit defeated. Three very un-Dowling like qualities.

Part of Farah's charm was the ability to hide what she was feeling behind the headmistress facade, being a powerful mind fairy gave her complete clemency and control around others. Students only saw what she wanted them to and her airy warmth and kindness quickly washed away any apprehension or fear one could ever feel in her presence.

The real Farah was only for them to see. A beautiful, complex creature swirling around behind two gleaming brown eyes.

So Ben knew this was hurting her as much as it was hurting him. "He's going to be all right, Farah. I have to believe that and I need you to believe it too. When you get out of sorts you project and amplify and I know how much you hate doing that." He started, moving towards the pair and sinking down onto the step next to the headmistress. She was stiff as a board but he could feel the sorrow wafting off of her already.

Farah let out a pained laugh, shaking her head. "We don't know that, Ben. The infection is spreading too quickly and Saul, yes, he is strong but this isn't some simple fix and if I would have just killed the Burned One when we first found it, we --" Professor Harvey rested his hand on top of hers and giving it a gentle squeeze, stopping her. "This isn't your fault. We still wouldn't be out of the woods, even if you had killed it.."

"It **is** my fault." Farah insisted because she knew it was. She had found Bloom, she had brought her to their world and she wanted answers for Rosalind's past actions. It brought about the Burned Ones, it had to be connected. All of those things were on her. "I wanted to study it instead of bringing it back and killing it as I should have. I sent them out there. He was right."

Ben countered her right away, "that's their job. To protect. He volunteered to go with Luna's guard. None of us expected this to happen. Also, don't let him hear you say that. He'll be an insufferable bastard if he does.." Farah threw up her hands in reply with a huff. "It doesn't matter. If it had been us, we never would have been so sloppy. She would have had everything scouted properly and protocol would have been followed. I changed the state of play and I failed Saul, not only as his commander and fellow soldier but as his friend and..."

The She in question went without saying and neither was about to give power to her name after all these years.

"-- Saul knew what he was getting himself into. He wouldn't be leading the team if either of you didn't think he could handle it. Farah, he wouldn't want you to be doing this to yourself. Not again." Ben insisted, knowing he was right. Saul knew the job better than anyone and ever since Andreas died he took every vow, every battle as if it was the most important thing in the world. It's why he was so hard on Sky sometimes. He wanted the best for the boy. Silva would give his life to protect the school, the students, to protect Sky, and Farah.

"What else am I to do, Ben? I can't help him, can't comfort him. He's screaming so loudly inside and refusing to let me help him when he needs it most. The zanbaq will keep his symptoms at bay but it doesn't change what's going on in his head. He won't..." Farah trailed off with a loud sigh, resting her head against Ben's shoulder. "We need to find it before it's too late." 

The tweed jacket Ben insisted on always wearing was itching her face and she didn't even have it in her to care. Farah thought she deserved that too, though sometimes she really wished he would change his jacket. Tonight it would just be a small penance.

"We **will**. You're both stubborn as mules, he wouldn't put his pain on me either, even if I could take it from him. He's trying to save you both. You can feel the students, the other faculty, yourself, me. No one can take all of it all the time and be okay. There is a breaking point, Farah. Even for you." Ben wrapped his arm around Farah's shoulder, pulling her in to lean against him. 

Farah wouldn't accept that as an answer. She couldn't. "I can. I have to. We have hundreds of students to think about, a rogue Burned One on the loose, and Bloom knows she's a changeling now, there is too much at stake. Too many questions we can't possibly answer without destroying the foundations of everything we've been building all these years. We've always shared the workload, why is now any different?"

"Because this is bigger than just the three of us, you said it yourself: we need to protect the school and we all have to be ready and strong enough to face it. We all have to play our parts, this is Saul's right now. If he hadn't have been hurt, we wouldn't know that we had another player out there." That wasn't what she wanted to hear, he could tell, but it had to be said. "

Shaking her shoulder reassuringly, Ben gave it a fond pat. "You should get to bed, we still have to get up and teach tomorrow and you look exhausted. He's not going anywhere tonight and the zanbaq is constantly brewing. There's nothing more to be done here tonight." Lifting his glasses to rub at his eyes with his free hand, he adjusted the spectacles and glanced back at his friends. Fools in love, forged by fire, and too proud to act on it. 

Idiots. It made him miss his wife. She would have knocked both their heads together until they figured it out.

"You're trying to tell me you aren't tired, Ben? You forget I know you. I want to stay with him, you've been with him all day. It's my turn, please." She was nearly pleading now, she knew that. It wasn't like her but Farah couldn't go through this again, losing Andreas had been devastating to all of them, mixed with Rosalind's betrayal at Aster Dell and subsequent locking away, Farah becoming headmistress. Everything had happened in such a short time, they had just been expected to deal with it.

A sudden and painful tug of her hair caused Farah to yelp and whip around, eyeing up the supposedly unconscious man and seeking any sort of movement from the man. He'd been stone cold when she had arrived. To her surprise, Saul's eyes were open, his fingers poised for another attack on her hair. " **Both** of you get to bed. I'm not dead yet. Let an old man sleep in peace, will you? You two are ungodly loud for people trying to be quiet."

"Saul!" Ben and Farah both scrambled to stand up, nearly tripping each other in the process and causing them both to let out the first chuckle either had experienced in what now seemed like ages. Saul began wheezing loudly, his back arching in pain and Farah and Ben sprang into their training, Farah slipping Saul's head onto her lap once again to give him some elevation and Ben running back to his station to grab another vial and gauze. 

"B.e.d. You're both watching me like a leopard and a monkey about to pounce, I'm fine for now. Just leave me a bloody pillow this time." Silva ground out after he caught his breath, wincing in pain as Ben dabbed at the festering wound on his back. "Stop talking." Farah and Ben ordered simultaneously. He, taking a visual inventory to ensure nothing had progressed any further and she, brushing away the hair hanging in Silva's face due to his previously fevered sweat. 

With a loud sigh of annoyance, Silva balanced his hand on Farah's arm and gripped Ben's shoulder with the other while the other man worked. He had to be strong enough to see this through, they all did. If this was how Saul was meant to go out, then that was fine, but they needed to get more troops ready, gods above give him the strength to hold out that long at least.

"Can I at least sleep in a bed tonight, dad? Or are you going to keep me in the sunlight until I sprout flowers?" He snarked, glancing over at Ben with his head tilted only to get swatted in the forehead by Farah. "Ow. Possibly concussed man here!" Ben glanced up from Saul's backside and assessed the situation. Silva had been here for days under constant watch, might not be a bad idea to try getting him on his feet. 

Wiping the last of the dried blood away, Ben straightened up and threw the sullied dressings in the nearby bin, ignoring the childish antics behind him. "It looks as if the infection has slowed for the moment, as long as we keep an eye on it then you should be able to return to your students and your bed, for _now_. You cannot lie to us about how you're feeling Saul, promise me that. At the first sign of a turn, you need to find me."

"I remember the drill, doc. I'm no twitchy first year." Silva insisted as he slowly started to sit up fully with the help of Farah's hand on his back. Two pairs of eyes now watching Ben, waiting for answers. "Can you walk, Saul?" A soft questioning voice asked, no judgement in her voice at all should he be unable to carry it out. He'd been in bed for at least two days, there had to be some strength in him by now. "Yeah, just help me up." Immediately his friends each slid their arms under his and slowly helped him stand, pausing for a moment to let him get his bearings.

With a deep breath and a waving them both off to let him try, Saul took his first few steps forward, ever aware of the joint gazes burning a hole into his back should he start to stumble. Luckily, he wasn't too bad once he got going and turned around to face his worrying companions. "See? Good as new. Just need some supper." Although, getting a whiff of his shirt as he stretched his arms, he wrinkled his nose. "Also a hot shower in the morning. Thanks, mate."

"I'm going to stay here and clean up, can you two manage on your own or do you need an adult?" Ben asked, raising an eyebrow at both of them. Farah's hands were buried in her trouser pockets looking sheepish and Saul was wiggling his fingers trying to wake them up. Silva just blew a raspberry at him and started heading for the door, Farah following not far behind with her eyes rolled into her head.

Now, Farah could walk ahead of Saul, make him keep time with her as he often did but she had been scared enough to quash the desire to test him, instead, slipping her arm around his and digging her nails into his sleeve, causing Silva to look up at her as they moved throughout the quiet hallways. "You were worried about me." He surmised, knowing it to be true. He'd heard some of the conversations while waking.

She knew better than to deny it, though it would be easy enough to hide. "Of course I was, you could have died, Saul! I am so sor -- " Saul stopped their walk and shook his head, squeezing her forearm until she looked at him. "Don't, Farah. We were all caught off guard. **All** of us. You couldn't have known any more than I did and now we know more. I'm not going to die on you, I promise. We still have loads to do before that happens, all right?" 

Nodding with a shaky breath, Farah just stood there and took him in. All his cuts and bruises, the gauze and tape holding bits of skin together by a thread, the angry, black vine-like veins growing along his neck and it truly hit her how close she had been to losing him. He was her partner, she trusted him as she trusted herself. Their mutual alignments walked hand in hand.

In the blink of an eye, their bond could have been severed permanently. A fairy and specialist bond was precious and a loss on either side was soul crushing. Eyes closed to keep the tears at bay and with her heart beating in her ears, Farah suddenly threw her arms around his neck and held him close, hearing him sputter for a moment before wrapping his arms around her. Gods she hoped no one was watching. People weren't used to seeing Headmistress Dowling being so affectionate with anyone. 

Now wouldn't be the prime time to start.

Just as quickly as she'd done it, were her arms dropping to her sides and the desire to keep walking causing her to turn from him. A light blush was dusting her collarbone and rising up her neck, her nose felt snotty, all in all, not a good look for her. Farah didn't do _this_. She had come to prefer fewer strings as time had gone on. Rounding the corner at the end of the hall, she stopped as she realised that Saul hadn't been with her so she waited with her head bowed.

Saul joined her a minute later and the two continued on in comfortable silence, the ease enveloping them as it had in the past.

Eventually stopping outside of the headmaster's bedroom, both Silva and Farah sighed. "Will you be okay on your own?" She asked, staring at the large door as a million what-if scenarios ran through her head at the thought of leaving him. Saul knew he would be fine, but he wanted the company as well, not that he was good at admitting it. They both knew how to comfort the other in times of need, it was just part of the bond.

But they were complete shit at vocalising personal desires in person after years of keeping each other at bay, texting had spoiled them. Easier to do when you couldn't see the other person's face. The cowards.

Glancing around to make sure the hallway was clear, Saul pulled Farah closer to his body so that he could rest his forehead against hers, their breaths mingling in the space between. The walls dropping down on both sides even if only for a moment. "Stay." Neither of them had been expecting him to say it, both freezing at the word. They hadn't spent the night in the other's rooms in years. 

Emotionally though, they had never been so tightly bound. Especially now that the real threat of death was knocking on the door again.

Farah went to answer and came up speechless, rather, deciding to step closer and gripping his arms as she nodded. Saul continued, "I know you can't stay the whole night, we don't need these shitheads talking, but for a while maybe. Just to make sure I don't roll off the bed and concuss myself again or something," he added, trying to add a bit of lightheartedness to the heavy request. A small smile curled at the corner of her lips sounded victory on his part.

He opened the door and held it open for her, watching as she stepped inside his personal space and look around, slowly undressing and climbing into the bed. It really had been a while. Before stepping over the threshold, Saul spied a blur out of the corner of his eye and saw it was Sky, who stared back at him with half confusion and delirium. Pointing at the boy, he mouthed the words "not a word" before watching him scurry away, and slipped into his room and crawling into bed behind Farah.

Arms wrapped around her waist, Saul rested his forehead against the back of her neck and inhaled deeply. She smelled like old books and sandalwood, like serenity. Given the dread that had first settled over him after the attack, he was thankful just to have tonight with both his best friend and the woman he loved. Something was coming, it was going to change and them all and as it had sixteen years ago, he saw the world burning behind closed eyes. A great fire had forged them, he just hoped it wouldn't be the thing that broke them too.


End file.
